Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I support Deputy Reilly on this issue. I am not from the region concerned, but I am close to it. Why does the Minister think that the people in Ennis and Nenagh are scared at the moment? Why does she think that ordinary law-abiding people will come out in their thousands in opposition to this? These people also believe in centres of excellence, as any right-thinking person would do. However, they genuinely believe from experience that something will happen in the regional hospital in Limerick, and nothing will happen in Nenagh and Ennis.

There is a similar proposal for University College Hospital Galway and the west. How would the Minister expect the people of Tuam to react to guarantees given by her Government over ten years that the community hospital in Tuam would be built? As far as I can see, things are getting worse, yet this hospital was supposed to complement UCHG. Certain things would be done there that could be carried out within 20 miles of the hospital, so that people would not have to be brought in by ambulance.

The Teamwork report could not have been more clear when it stated that no acute service will be withdrawn from the current general hospitals until the regional centre of excellence is resourced. The Minister has been a good few years in her current job, for which she is well paid. While the goal of creating centres of excellence is shared by everybody, I cannot understand her methods of bringing people towards that goal. Is she gone to the stage where she feels she must act like a dictator? Does she feel that whether the people come with her or not, she is right all the time and that this will have to happen? People have to be made understand that this is being done in their best interests, but if the people of Nenagh, Ennis or west Clare are asked whether this is the case, they will say that it could not be further from the truth. They believe that there will be a downgrading in their areas, and there will be no way back when it happens.

Even though the Minister has broken many promises, she should at least ensure that she does things locally. I guarantee her that if this happens in Nenagh, Ennis and elsewhere, she will have little trouble with the centres of excellence. We were talking with the president of the IMO last week on the health committee, and about the importance of primary medicine at a local level. He threw his hands up in the air and told us that we are making very little progress. How can the Minister expect people to believe that the likes of the Mid-Western Hospital in Limerick will not become a dumping ground for all these cases, and that they will not be able to control it?

See this speech in context